A former minor Limerick footballer and national athletics champion who was lured to a savage beating by two brothers of All-Star hurler Kyle Hayes, told a sentencing court today: “They beat me like they wanted me dead”.
Ciaran Ryan, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick, fought back tears as he told how Cian Hayes and Daragh Hayes, who he had grown up with and played GAA with at the Kildimo Pallaskenry club, attacked him.
Daragh Hayes (37) and Cian Hayes (34), of Ballyashea, Kildimo, Co Limerick, beat Mr Ryan with a hurley and a wrench in an unprovoked attack.
Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard that both accused “lured” Mr Ryan to Daragh Hayes’s under the pretence of discussing arrangements for Cian Hayes’s impending wedding in which Mr Ryan was his best man.
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However, once inside the house, the two brothers set upon Mr Ryan, wrongly believing he had been involved in a romantic relationship with Daragh Hayes’s ex-partner Claire McNamara.
Daragh Hayes assaulted Mr Ryan with a hurley while Cian Hayes delivered blows with the wrench, their sentencing hearing heard.
Mr Ryan sustained multiple broken bones including to a leg, arm, fingers, as well as extensive bruising all over his body, and he said he continues to suffer traumatic stress from the attack.
Lily Buckley, prosecuting barrister, said Mr Ryan “pleaded” with the two accused men to stop hitting him, but they carried on.
They eventually stopped when they realised he was “telling the truth”, that he did not know anything about what the brothers had erroneously accused him off.
The attack happened in the front sittingroom of Daragh Hayes’s house, around 7.15pm, on September 29th, 2021.
Mr Ryan delivered a victim impact statement in court and told how “the two men, who had been friends of mine since I was a child, changed my life forever”.
“I had happily attended at Daragh’s home to discuss Cian’s upcoming wedding, I now know they deliberately lured me there to viciously beat me and interrogate me,” Mr Ryan said.
The qualified carpenter who runs a car sales business in Limerick city said he still finds himself paralysed in fear by the “psychological carnage” of the attack.
The attack had been “oppressive” on him and his family in the Kildimo parish, he said.
“It is like a veil of darkness descended on me that day, for no reason, a darkness that still lingers in my parish until now, but Cian and Daragh have yet to apologise to me,” Mr Ryan said.
Mr Ryan said he and his family had been “semi-shunned” by some within their parish because “for speaking up against the Hayes brothers”.
“Since this assault my life has been hell in my local parish, the Hayes brothers made up plenty of false rumours and accusations about me, I live in Pallaskenry and work in Limerick city.”
“I was a high-level sports star and now I am afraid to set foot in any local pitch in my parish,” Mr Ryan said.
Mr Ryan said he continues to suffer with “horrendous nightmares and suicidal thoughts” and said, “I fear for my safety on a daily basis ... sometimes I don’t even want to wake up.”
Brian McInerney and Lorcan Connolly, senior defence counsel for the two accused, said the two defendants wanted to “apologise” to Mr Ryan and that he had nothing to fear from them.
Mr Ryan said he was “welcomed” into the house on the evening in question, but then without warning, “Cian picked up the big spider wrench and Daragh picked up a hurley, and without explanation, they beat me like they wanted me dead”.
“I tried to protect my face from the strikes by Cian, the venom in his eyes terrified me.”
“Cian shattered a number of my ribs and punctured my lung, all the while Daragh was beating me on the other side of my body with a hurley.”
“Daragh beat me so hard with the hurley that the hurley snapped, I couldn’t catch my breath, I didn’t know what was going on or how I was going to escape.”
“I was battered on both sides of my body, between my arms, lungs, rib cage, legs and fingers.”
Mr Ryan said that after conceding that he had told them the truth, Daragh Hayes cried and told Cian Hayes ‘we went too far’, but Mr Ryan said “Cian showed absolutely zero remorse”.
Mr Ryan said the brothers threatened him and outlined ‘the consequences’ of telling anyone what had happened.
Mr Ryan said he phoned his girlfriend to collect him on the road, and she brought him to University Hospital Limerick for emergency treatment.
Testimonials on behalf of the two defendants were handed into court, including from Kildimo Pallaskenry GAA Club where Cian Hayes is captain of the current County Limerick Junior B hurling champions.
The brothers retired secondary school principal, John Egan, also provided a testimony on each of their behalf, the court heard.
Gardaí questioned the two brothers after Mr Ryan gave a statement to them from his hospital bed a few days after the attack.
They denied having anything to do with Mr Ryan’s injuries and claimed he was telling “lies”.
A “pivotal” chain in the garda case against the two accused came after Mr Ryan’s DNA was found in blood stains on cushions that gardaí seized from Daragh Hayes’ home following the attack.
The two accused were originally charged assault causing “serious harm” to Mr Ryan, however the State accepted their guilty pleas to assault causing “harm”, which carries a lesser sentence.
They also pleaded guilty to possessing the hurley and the wrench and using them as weapons during the attack.
Judge Colin Daly adjourned sentencing to January 30th, 2025, and remanded both accused on continuing bail to that date.
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